The Guilty Ones
by IHeartGleeForever
Summary: Jesse wants Rachel back, but Rachel won't have it even if he's what she wants. Or at least not yet. Other pairings included Puck/Quinn, Artie/Tina, Brittany/Santana, etc. Rated T just in case. The insides better than the summary. Trust me.
1. Since U Been Gone

**Hey guys! I was watching Glee, and it's my favorite show ever. I just don't think Rachel and Finn have the same chemistry Jesse and Rachel have. Maybe it's because I'm a huge Spring Awakening fan, although I do disagree with everything Jesse did in Funk. He acted like a total jerk :) (I do not own Glee or any of the characters nor do I own Since U Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson) Anyways, I was in my mom's car, listening to my IPod and this song came on, and I thought it fit the two perfectly. I know it's stupid to chnage things, but I don't want to make it summer yet, so let's just pretend this takes place in the middle of spring, but still after Journey takes place. I'm not too sure what I'm going to do with this yet, so depending on whether I get reviews or not, I may or may not continue this and make it multi chapter. So R&R ;)**

It had been exactly 36 days. She wasn't sure why she was still counting. It was ridiculous. She had tried to convince herself over and over again, that she was way over him, but was she really? She shook her head rapidly. Of course she was. She was Rachel Berry, and Rachel Berry was not a weak little girl. Or at least she didn't want to be.

"Hey Rachel." Finn greeted with that same crooked grin. It was funny how she used to be so mesmerized by that grin. Before, she would've done anything for him, but now...it was as though she was immune to it. In fact, her relationship with Finn now, wasn't what she had expected at all. What she had expected, after HE left her and New Directions, was to instantly fall for Finn again, the way she had before. For some reason, she just hadn't felt that same sensation she felt with Finn before Jesse. She cringed as she pictured the boy she once loved in her mind. Who was she kidding? She still loved him.

"Um...Rachel? Hey Rachel!" Finn called in a worried tone, as he waved his hand in front of her face. She snapped out of her thoughts, and focused on the boy in front of her.

"Oh. I'm sorry. I was just...you know...thinking." She replied quickly. Finn, being himself, seemed satisfied with the answer. That was one thing she might've still liked about him. He didn't try and barge into her thoughts, and he didn't press on any further. But, she knew it wasn't because he was giving her her own space or time to think. She knew it was only because he didn't suspect what she was thinking. He had no idea, although it was pretty much obvious. He might've been the only one who didn't know that she was not over HIM.

"Do you wanna do something tonight?" He asked casually. She shrugged and snatched another book from her locker, placing it on the pile in her arms. "A movie and dinner maybe?"

"Sure. Pick me up at 6:00?" He nodded, flashing her another crooked grin before walking off down the hallway. She her head fell foward, banging against the locker door. Maybe if she waited just a little longer, that sensation she used to feel around Finn would come back. Maybe she just needed to give it time. Or maybe not. She shook off the negative thoughts and slammed her locker closed. She let her head drop and took a deep breath. Rachel Berry was now ready to face another day.

36 days. Of course he still counted the days since that awful mistake he made. Why wouldn't he? It was the dumbest thing he could've possibly done in his whole entire life. And he used to think he was too good to make mistakes. If he did believe in psychics, he would've wished he were one. Maybe then he would've known how big that mistake really was, and actually stopped himself from doing it. He lost so much from it, and hardly gained anything. Sure, he still had his scholarship, but if he had the chance to take it back, he would do that anyday. If only he knew before what he knew now.

He obviously hadn't known how hard he had fallen for Rachel. When Vocal Adrenaline won regionals, he hadn't felt the way he wanted to feel after another victory. In fact, he hadn't even felt the slightest bit happy. All he could remember, was looking towards New Directions, and seeing the look of dissapointment and hurt strewn across her face. Congratulations Jesse you have officially taken everything you could from her.

The only thing he could possibly want now, was Rachel back in his arms. But he knew that it was too late for that now. That would be asking too much. Now, she wouldn't even look at him. Not that he had seen her since Regionals, but he just had a feeling. Why had he been so stupid and chosed Vocal Adrenaline over Rachel? He honestly didn't care about the other members of Vocal Adrenaline. They might've worshipped the ground he stood on, (Obviously because he was better than them) but none of them mattered to him. Rachel mattered to him, but all he thought of at that moment was the damn stupid scholarship and his stupid future.

He sighed and took a deep breath, getting his show face ready. Now Jesse was ready to face another day or regret.

Rachel released another strand of hair from the curling iron, and flung it over her shoulder. It was funny how her dates with Finn never seemed to make her nervous...at least, not the way Jesse's did.

When Finn broke up with her for Santana and Brittany, how long did it take her to get over it? A few days at most. Was that because she'd found someone new? Jesse? Maybe so. Then why couldn't she get over Jesse now that she had Finn? Wasn't it just like before?

The doorbell sounded and she raced to it, as she had many times before. Maybe she was trying to convince herself that she loved Finn like she had before. Maybe if she kept acting like she was as excited and nervous as she should be, she would be. She turned the door knob and stopped dead at the sight of what was behind it. Rachel Berry the girl who could never stop talking for her life was speechless for once.

"Can I come in?" It had taken her a few seconds to finally get the words through to her brain, and when they had she couldn't decide on how to answer. It had taken everything she had to stop herself from saying yes, although she knew in her heart and mind, that it he didn't deserve a yes.

"No." She hadn't thought up what to say next. Half of her wanted Jesse out of her sight immediately and to never see him again, but the other half of her wanted him to stay a while...maybe even forever. Both sides wanted answers, but she wasn't sure yet if she was ready for that. After all, she was pretty sure the answers would end up being something cruel. She knew he had no feelings for her, or ever did.

"You look beautiful." She snorted.

"I'm going on a date with Finn tonight." She hissed in reply. For a second she could've sworn she saw a hint of sadness and regret in his expression. A flaw in his act. Maybe jealousy? She shook off the thought, convincing herself that she was just paranoid. She was just mixing up her fantasies with reality. "What do you want?"

"There are some things that need to be said or rather explained."

"I don't want to hear it." Rachel cried. She soon realized that she said that a little too quickly, she was losing her cool. "At least not now."

"Then when? When will I ever get the chance to make things right?" Now he just seemed irritated by those 4 words. He had decided a little while ago that it was 'now or never', but now it seemed more like it would be never, whether he had chosen to confront her or not.

"Things will never be right between us. Don't you see? You had your chance before you broke my heart. You could've made things right then, but you didn't. You could've just told me the truth." She was now becoming hysterical, but did she care? No. "I don't see why you thought you could waltz in here and expect me to give you another chance. Just leave." It took everything she had to keep herself from breaking out into sobs. She would never let him see her in tears again. He didn't deserve even that.

"Even if I leave now. I will never leave from your life. Never again." He didn't think he would be able to live without her. At least a happy life.

Finn pulled up into the Berry's driveway, slamming the door closed, with his signature crooked grin plastered on his face. He rang the doorbell and waited a few seconds. He frowned and rang it again. After several minutes, he finally figured something was wrong. The lights were on in the house, but no one was answering the door. Maybe Rachel just couldn't hear it. Yeah, that was it. There were tons of times, when he had the volume on his speakers up real high, and was oblivious to everything else around him.

He figured that it'd be fine if he just went in. After all, he knew the door was unlocked. He reluctantly opened the door, only to find Rachel lying across the floor, face in hands, crying her heart out. He was instantly confused, but worry was the main emotion controlling his actions.

"Rachel! Are you all right?" A small smile came across her face, but only lasted half a second, before being replaced with more sobs. What a stupid question. Did she look okay? It was just like Finn, yet it was still quite funny.

He held her close to him, rubbing circles on her back. At first, her sobs seemed endless, but after a while they became only hiccups. When she finally was able to speak she honestly didn't know what to say. If she didn't say anything he would get suspicious, but she didn't want to tell him the truth. If this were to be kept a secret, she wanted to share it with anyone but him.

"What's wrong, baby?" He asked, stroking her back. As a natural born actress, it didn't take her long to think of a good lie.

"My dad's work friend died today. She was like a mother to me." What a lie? Her dads never let her into their work, They always had said it wasn't something she would be interested in, and she couldn't agree more. Finn seemed to buy the lie, and continued storking her back.

"It's gonna be alright." He whispered in her ear, pulling a strand of hair away from her face. She pretended like his comforting helped her "problem", and after a few hours, he was off. She was finally alone to cry as much as she wanted.

She slipped under the protection of her covers, not bothering to change or do much of anything, and began sobbing. Why now, out of all times, did her dads have to be out for the night? She grabbed her phone off her bureau, and texted the last person she ever thought she'd confide in. Quinn Fabray.

"Really? After all that bastard did to you, he actually had the nerve to come back?" Quinn confirmed incredulously. Rachel nodded, wiping the fresh tears rolling down her face. She was glad she asked Quinn to come. Unexpectedly, Quinn had been nice, although they'd never been the greatest friends, now it looked as if they were best friends. Unlike the other girls in New Directions, Quinn knew how to keep a secret. After all, she lived with the secret of her pregnancy until Puck spilled to the rest of the glee club.

"Just when I thought I was on the way to finally getting over him, he comes right back to rub it in my face."

"If I knew where he lived, I'd get Puck to teach him a lesson." Quinn replied, gritting her teeth. Rachel had a horrified expression on her face and gasped. As much as she tried to tell herself she hated Jesse, she knew she just couldn't. She'd rather not have Puck beat the heck out of him.

"Please tell Noah that that won't be neccessary. I don't know where he lives either." She lied smoothly. She brushed her hair back and took a deep breath.

"You told him you didn't want to see him, right?" She nodded. "Then he won't come back."

"About that..." Rachel bit deeper into the flesh of her lip. "He told me he wouldn't give up on me."

"Do you want him to give up?" Quinn asked in a worried tone. "Because I can take care of that for you. In fact, I want to take care of that." The now slender former cheerleader cracked her knuckles and grinned mischeviously.

"He does deserve that, but no thanks." Rachel laid back onto the floor and stared at the Wicked poster on her wall. "Sooner or later, I will have to talk to him. Just because I can't live without knowing whether he was playing me from the very beginning or not."

"Either way, he played you Rachel. You can't forgive him. Don't give into him. You're a strong independent woman." Rachel let out an easy going laugh.

"Who said I was going to forgive him? That's just about the last thing on my mind."

"Do you love Finn?" Rachel dug her tooth into her bottom lip. Why that out of all the questions did she have to ask? Although she thought she could tell Quinn everything, she knew that she just couldn't now. She shrugged her shoulders.

"Of course I do. Why else would I be his girlfriend?" Quinn eyed her suspiciously, before breathing a sigh.

"Do you love Jesse?" Oh great. It was ten times worse than the first question. And yet, she had to tell another lie. She couldn't even settle for telling the truthful 'I don't know'

"No. Of course not. Never." The only response she got from Quinn was a 'hmm...'

"You sure?" She finally sighed. Rachel nodded, and Quinn shrugged.

"Then I think you should tell Jesse you love Finn, and are over him. That'll get him off your back."

"You know I was never good at expressing my feelings through words."

"Then sing it to him." Once Quinn said that, it never got out of Rachel's mind. She thought about it for several days. Would she ever see Jesse again? Would he come back? If he did, she could always do just as Quinn had suggested.

"Rachel! Someone's at the door!" Her father called from the bottom of the stairway. She responded with a "I'm coming." and seconds later, was at the door. When she opened it, she was once again stunned. Less than last time, but still surprised. It had been exactly 5 days since she last saw him, and she figured he wasn't serious about pursuing her.

"Are you ready to talk yet?" She cleared her throat, but instead of responding to his question, started singing.

Here's the thing we started off friends  
It was cool but it was all pretend  
Yeah yeah  
Since U Been Gone

She started off low, recalling the memories of their first meeting. It was just them in the music store singing "Hello" without a care in the world. She could still feel her heart pounding so quickly as it had at that time too.

U dedicated u took the time  
Wasn't long till I called you mine  
Yeah Yeah  
Since you been gone

And all u'd ever hear me say  
Is how I pictured me with you  
That's all u'd ever hear me say

At first he was dedicated to the realtionship. And she had thought it was because they were in love. She was so vulnerable then, but she was the same now. Nothing changed, except her heart was still whole back then.

But since you been gone

I can breathe for the first time  
Im so movin on  
Yeah yeah  
Thanks to you  
Now I get  
What I want  
Since u've been gone

How can I put it' you put me on  
I even fell for that stupid love song  
Yeah yeah  
Since you been gone

How come I never hear you say  
I just wanna be with you  
I guess you never felt that way

But since you been gone  
I can breathe for the first time  
Im so movin on  
Yeah yeah  
Thanks to you  
Now I get  
I get what I want  
Since you been gone

You had your chance you blew it  
Out of sight, out of mind  
Shut your mouth I just can't take it  
Again and again and again and again

She squeezed her eyes shut, wailing the bridge. He blew his chance way out of the waters. As soon as that egg smashed against her forehead, so did her heart.

Since you been gone  
I can breathe for the first time  
Im so movin on  
Yeah yeah  
Thanks to you (thanks to you)  
Now I get  
I get what I want  
I can breathe for the first time  
Im so movin on  
Yeah yeah  
Thanks to you (thanks to you)  
Now I get (I get)  
You should know (you should know)  
That I get  
I get what I want  
since you been gone  
since you been gone  
since you been gone

She smiled in satisfaction, at the boy's shocked expression, before slamming the door in his face. After she was back in the safety of her room, she reflected on the last few moments. For some reason her heart still hurt. Why? She had just showed Jesse that she was over him. The she realized why. Half the song was a lie. Since he's been gone, she couldn't breath at all. Her heart's been suffocating. Since he's been gone, she hasn't moved on. Not an inch. She still dwells on their memories, even if they were all lies. Since he's been gone she hasn't gotten what she's wanted, because what she wants is Jesse .


	2. Love Of My Life

**Much thanks to the following for reviewing...****FromtheBrain, smitty235, micapetrelli, SceneSceneJellybean (lol...I love your name), MaLFoyMaiDeN, Sea Serpent, and Maiqu**

**Thank you so much for the reviews, because this is my first fic, I honestly wasn't expecting much, but the amount I got was great. I'm going on vacation this Saturday, and won't be back for a week, and my mom won't let me bring my laptop. I wrote this chapter, because of two things**

**1. Anyone who is reading probably wants to know where this fic stands, because the last chapter could've been a one shot or could not have been. As you can see, I decided to make it a multi-chapter. I'm not too sure how long it'll be, but it won't be too short, because I want to involve all the characters and make all of them have a plot in the story.**

**2. I'm not a big fan of Author's Notes, so if I am to write an author's note (like this one) I think I'll try to include a chapter in it to, so you don't have to view the story, and only find a stupid note informing you that I'm sorry I haven't updated lately or that I'm going somewhere and won't update in a while. So here you go! :)**

**I haven't been feeling as great lately, so this chapter may not be as good as the last, but I hope you enjoy, and tell me your thoughts on it, or if there is anything I ned to improve on, or if you have any ideas you'd like to put out in the open. btw...I meant to put somethign in to seperate the scenes, but for some reason refuses to let me do that, so whenever you see TGO (The Guilty Ones) it'll be my seperater between scenes. **

He sat in the lonely auditorium, thinking over the events of the day. What was that? It seemed as if the more he tried to make it better, the worse it got. He had thought telling her the truth would make things better, but he never got the chance. Instead, he just kept pushing him away, and today...He guessed he deserved that, but still...the choice of song itself disturbed him, and if that was truly what she felt for him, than he was screwed. He might as well just give up as it is.

He made his way over to the far end of the stage, and rested his hands on the keys. Slowly, he began to play, and the sad tune sunded in the room.

_Love of my life - you hurt me,_  
_You broken my heart and now you leave me._  
_Love of my life can't you see,_  
_Bring it back, bring it back,_  
_Don't take it away from me, because you don't know, what it means to me._

_Love of my life don't leave me,_  
_You've stolen my love, you now desert me,_  
_Love of my life can't you see,_  
_Bring it back, bring it back,_  
_Don't take it away from me because you don't know - what it means to me._

_You won't remember -_  
_When this is blown over_  
_And everything's all by the way -_  
_When I get older_  
_I will be there by your side to remind you how I still love you - still love you._

_Back - hurry back,_  
_Don't take it away from me,_  
_because you don't know what it means to me - Love of my life_  
_Love of my life..._

"Not bad. Who's it for?" He whipped around to face Shelby Corcoran, his coach although he always thought of her as a motherly figure. "If that curly haired coach of New Directions saw this, he'd think Vocal Adrenaline finally got a soul." She continued. She breathed a sigh. "Jesse, what happened?"

"She hates me. She doesn't want to see me ever again." He answered staring blankly into space.

"My biological daughter?" Shelby confirmed. He nodded, and she patted his shoulder.

"Just give it time." She replied before grabbing her bag and making her leave. This left him thinking. Give what time?

**The Guilty Ones**

Jesse's slumber was interrupted by the tune "Hello" erupting from his phone. He mumbled a something inaudible under his breath, before picking it up and answering.

"Hello? Who may I ask is calling at 2:00 in the morning?" What he didn't expect was the girl on the other end.

"What the heck is wrong with you?" The girl shrieked. He seemed confused at first. He could've sworn he heard the voice before, but just couldn't put a name to it.

"Excuse me, but who are you?" The girl on the other end sighed.

"Quinn Fabray." He was stumped. Who the heck was Quinn Fabray, why was she calling him at two in the morning, and why was she screaming at him? She groaned. "The pregnant girl from New Directions." She growled.

"So what are you calling me for?"

"Oh right. How can you possibly not bother to even apologize for a month, and then try and "make things right" with Rachel?" She last thing he needed was Rachel's friends coming to bite his head off.

"Fine. I won't bother her anymore. I've already given up. Goodnight."

"Given up?" She repeated, "Oh don't. Please don't!" He rubbed his forehead. Why couldn't this girl just make up her mind? One second she's telling him to stay away, the next she's telling him to keep trying. What did she want?

"Yes, I've given up. Rachel has made her point that she does not want me around."

"Believe me. What she said and what she feels are two different things. She told me she loves Finn, yet I doubt that." Quinn giggled.

"How can you be so sure?" Jesse questioned. After seeing Rachel's performance at regionals, there was no doubt in his mind that she had feelings for the jock. The way their eyes were glued to each other's. It was as if they were the only two in the room, singing to each other rather than to the audience. Jesse was an actor himself, he would've been able to tell if it was an act on Rachel's part.

"Finn, Rachel, Puck, and I have double dated before. It's almost funny how awkward they are. Whenever Finn puts his arm around her shoulder she flinches. She hardly pays attention to anything he says, and when we were watching some musical she had in her DVD collection, she started crying. No matter what she says, she is definitely not over you ."

Jesse grinned, recalling the Friday nights where they would take turns picking out which musicals to watch, and constantly critisizing and complimenting the actors and actresses. It pained him to think she would do the same things with Finn. He considered that "their thing."

"So what does the all mighty Quinn Fabray suggest me to do?"

"Do everything your way, just don't give up. I know she's still in love with you...she's just stubborn. Now go get some sleep."

**The Guilty Ones**

Quinn sank her head deep into her pillow. She couldn't believe what she had just done. She dialed the number, she had stolen from Rachel's phone (Why hadn't she already deleted it?) at their sleepover, with every intent on verbally abusing that jerk like she never had before, but ended up consoling him. She hadn't planned on it. It was just a kind of spur of the moment kind of thing. She still was having trouble deciding whether it was even the right thing to do or whether it was a mistake. If everything worked the right way, and Jesse wasn't planning on breaking her heart again, then Jesse and Rachel would be happy in the end, but she hadn't even given a thought as to how Finn would feel. After all, she owed Finn. She cheated on him, and she wasn't even sure if he ever forgave her.

Finn loved Rachel, and he was as good a man as any. Although he wasn't the brightest, he was sweet, caring, and nice. He would always be there for her, and would never dream of hurting her. But then again, just because he's best for her doesn't mean he'll be the one she love. Love is a funny thing. Quinn and Puck were still together despite his personality and 'needs' It was weird how she loved Puck although he was a total ass. You don't pick who you love.

"She's still in love with that punk from Vocal whatev?" Quinn glared at her boyfriend and growled.

"Eavesdropper. That was a private conversation, containing much confidential information." He grasped her waist from behind, and pulled her to him.

"And I can't know what it's about?" He whispered in her ear. His hot breath still lingered against her skin. She let out an unsteady breath.

"If I told you, I'd have to tell you the beginning of the story. Rachel made me swear not too." He smirked. After all, Puck liked a challenge, and it was going to be very amusing for him, trying to squeeze the story out from her.

"When did you two become such great friends?" He questioned, placing light kisses on her neck.

"Since a week ago. She called me over for a sleepover. She needed to tell me...things." Quinn confessed, trying to hold back any sign that she was enjoying his company, although actually was.

"What kind of things?"

"I already told you to back off. That's Rachel and Jesse's business." Puck grinned. It was at least something. She had in fact, ended up telling Puck something. The more he pressed and annoyed her, the more came out, until finally she had gotten everything out to him. Either Quinn couldn't keep anything from him, or Noah Puckerman could do anything.

"Now that you've forced me into telling you everything, do you think I totally screwed everything up?"

"I don't know. It seems that way to me, but maybe that's only because I still want to bury my fist into that bastard's face, for betraying us all." Quinn shot Puck a cold glare.

"Thanks a lot, Puckerman." She sighed. "But seriously, I'm almost afraid to tell Finn that I said that. It was a mistake to tell him to keep trying with Rachel. Now Finn's going to be pissed once he finds out, and he already hates me enough." Puck held her tightly, in an attempt to console her.

"He doesn't hate you, he just needs to get over it. I mean, it was freakin months ago when he found out, and he still isn't cool with it. Besides, I'm the one he should hate. Aren't I the one who got you pregnant in the first place?" She nodded slightly, and buried her face in his chest, enjoying the warm embrace.

**The Guilty Ones**

Rachel Berry awoke early as usual, and scarfed down her protein shake, followed by her morning workout. Although last night had been rough for her, she was feeling unusually good. Maybe it was because she finally got to rub it in Jesse's face that she was over him, even if she truly wasn't. At least it was better waking up, knowing that she had gotten the last laugh. She now knew for sure, that she had knocked his confidence. He would not come back ever. She had mixed feelings on that. Part of her was relieved that she now knew for sure that she could move on, the other part hated herself for doing such a thing to make him leave. She chose to take a positive approach to this, and ignore the second half of herself, and focus on the present.

She still couldn't seem to shake the guilt. She knew she should've told Finn about everything with Jesse that had happened the last couple of days. It was so wrong to leave him in the dark like this. After all, If he ever found out on his own, the situation could easily be misunderstood. That was just about the last thing she needed, yet she still just didn't feel up to it. It was almost as if she just couldn't tell him. She didn't want to.

The morning had passed rather quickly and it wasn't long before she was already in her first period class. The teacher had just informed them they had a new student in he class, although she hadn't been exactly paying attention. Although she was the perfect student, she had a lot to think about. And then it happened, she saw him. Why was the world punishing her? What had she ever done wrong?

The teacher had placed him at a seat a few rows behind her. (Thankfully) Suddenly it seemed as though the day had slowed down. Every minute felt like an hour. She felt uneasy, knowing his eyes were glued to her back, and often found herself sneaking a glance back at him. Why did Principle Figgins even allow him back in the school? Hadn't he gone between schools enough, that they'd be fed up with it? Why did life suck so badly?

As soon as the bell sounded, she had gathered up her books in her arms, and was out the door, wishing nothing more, but for the day to end. She secretly wished Quinn was in her next class so she could get her feelings off her chest, and rant about how unfair this was, or Finn so he could console her. She stopped at her lockr to gather a few more things, hoping he had forgotten where her locker was. She was pratically hiding her head inside the small space. No such luck.

"No welcome back?" He smirked. She shot him an icy cold glare.

"Why are you here?" She hissed, the venom seething from her tone. He pretended as if he was oblivious to the fact that she was extremely uncomfortable in this situation.

"I didn't want to miss all your drama." He grinned cheekily. She bit her lip hard. Drama? The only drama in her life now, was the one he was creating. She gathered her neccessary things, and slammed the locker closed, walking as quickly down the hall as she could to her next class. Unfortunately, it wasn't too difficult for the boy to keep up. Instead of making her way to her next class, she turned around, and headed to Finn's locker, hoping to lose Jesse along the way.

"Hi Finn." She greeted a little too eagerly. "Would you mind walking me to class?" He seemed a little surprised. After all, Rachel had been a little distant lately. They hadn't talked or spent time together in a while, so he was more than glad to accept her offer. She looked back over her shoulder, relieved to find that Jesse wasn't there. With Finn around, she was sure he wasn't going to come near.

**The Guilty Ones**

Ever since the former head cheerleader, Quinn Fabray, was out of the picture. Santana Lopez named herself "Queen of " She was now the most popular girl in school. Only two things weren't perfect in her paradise.

The first, was the fact that Coach Sylvester hadn't granted her position of head cheerleader. It was obvious that she was the best out there, except maybe Brittany, who obviously didn't have the brains for the job. So why wasn't she head of the squad? Maybe Coach Sylvester just hadn't gotten around to it. Maybe she had meant to give her the position a long time ago, but just forgot. Either way, Santana knew that the second Quinn had gotten her ass kicked off the squad, she should've become the new head cheerleader. No question about it.

The second thing that troubled her, was the fact that Puck was still with Quinn. Quinn wasn't pregnant anymore with his baby, so why didn't Santana have her man back? In fact, it seemed things were going the opposite of how Santana wanted them. Puck seemed to be fooling around less, and actually getting serious with Quinn. Why? Quinn was no longer popular. Actually, she was at the bottom of the high school food chain. She got slushied in the face everyday, yet Puck was still with her.

Santana knew that this couldn't keep going on. This was not Puck. This was unhealthy behavior. Puck should be out there screwing as many girls as he can, not staying by Quinn's side every second of the day. That just wasn't like him. Santana had a plan. Santana would help Puck become himself again, and show the former cheerleader loser her place.

**The Guilty Ones**

Kurt strode down the hall, looking amazing (self described by him) as usual. Everything had quieted down since regionals. Rachel and Finn were in a steady relationship. Quinn was no longer pregnant, yet Puck still stayed by her side, and was a little more loyal to her than anyone expected. Everyone had warmed up to Rachel a little more, especially since she had let Kurt and Mercedes take a few more solos. Nothing dramatic had really gone on lately. Although Kurt was still determined that Finn would be his in the end. Kurt had already planned the next year out, Rachel would only play a small part in Finn's life, as his girlfriend, until Finn realizes that Kurt is all he's ever wanted. Kurt then would win New Directions their nationals, with his amazing solo of Defying Gravity that he had yet to perform, without mistake.

Kurt was daydreaming about his future plans, when something unusual caught his eye. At first he thought he was hallucinating. A distubance in their month long peace? Kurt just had to make sure that his eyes weren't playing tricks on him. He peered into Principle Figgins' office, where he had seen the figure dissappear into.

No way. He did not just see the boy who betrayed New Directions and who he blamed for their lose. Suddenly, even Kurt felt like walking into Principle Figgins' office and slapping the Vocal Adrenaline star across the face. What was he doing back here? He had clearly shown them all that he made his choice when he broke Rachel's heart, the only thing that connected him to New Directions in the first place.

Had anyone informed Finn that this pig snuck his way back into ? Did Rachel know? Kurt started to panic as he thought about these things. Suddenly another thing came into mind. Finn. What would happen if Rachel had gotten into a scandal with Jesse? In that case Finn would leave her, wouldn't he? That's where he came in. Kurt could be the one by Finn's side then. Suddenly, a huge smile came across Kurt's face, but he quickly shook it off.

No. That was just wrong. He was not going to destroy New Directions for his want for Finn. It wouldn't be worth it...although if that situation came true without his influence, than he wouldn't mind being there for Finn. Meanwhile, he needed to tell everyone what was going on. He quickly dialed the number on his phone, and waited for the girl on the other end to pick it up.

"Hey. Mercedes here. What's up Kurt?"

"Lots. You won't believe this. Are you ready?" He paused for several seconds just to build suspense in the conversation, knowing that she was just as eager to hear what he had to say. "Jesse is back at ." There was a large amount of silence on the other end, and then a gasp.

"No way! Are you for real?" He nodded excitedly, although it was obvious she couldn't see that motion. Otherwise, they wouldn't be chatting away on the phone.

"We're going to spread the news like a virus. You call Tina, Rachel, Quinn, Santana, and Brittany. I'll break the news to the guys." Kurt added, speaking like Rachel often did, without taking a breath inbetween setences.

"Got it. Wow is Finn going to be mad when he hears this. And Rachel's going to be horrified."

"Finn and Puck will probably beat him up." Kurt predicted. If there was anything Kurt and Mercedes loved about high school, it was the drama circulating around the glee club. Lately, things have been quiet, so they were even more eager, to hear and spread this. After they finally ended their call, they were speeding away, calling and texting as many glee members as they could. It wasn't long before everyone knew.


	3. Your Love Is My Drug

**Here I am again! No surprise here. I'm back from Canada (I went to Montreal for vacation) and I must say that they have the best food there. At first I was afraid, but I ate rabbit and lamb...and even escargot! But they weren't alive...that would be VERY VERY disgusting...**

**Back to the story, Sorry for the utter lack of in this chapter, I promise to try and make more in the next, but there are other goodies and surprises (or not so surprises, because most of you probably saw it coming) in this chapter! Enjoy, and feel free to review. Critisism, ideas, and other things are what this story feeds on! I'm sorry this chapter is kinda suckish...I didn't really feel up to writing it for the first few days, but the last scene, I got my mood back up. btw...DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything from glee, and I don't own Ke$ha's Your Love Is My Drug, but for some reason that song makes me want to jump around like an idiot.**

"Alright guys! We got a new...well, sorta...um...returning?..." paused, trying to decide how to describe the returning member.

", we all know who it is." Kurt announced smugly, eyeing Rachel's (as Kurt would call it) hideous outfit. 's eyebrows furrowed, and he gave the kids a questioning look. How could they already have all known? He shook it from his thoughts, and although he didn't sound as proud to announce it as the first time he did, he turned back towards the door.

"Well then, let's all welcome back Jesse ." As soon as he entered, the room became silent, and not in a good way.

Rachel was avoiding eye contact, and suddenly became interested with a dirty eraser lying on the floor. Brittany, who still thought Jesse was 's son and didn't understand the situation at all, was eyeing Santana, who didn't want to break the silence because that wouldn't be "cool" Matt and Mike were entirely silent which wasn't all that surprising, due to the fact that they were usually quiet. Kurt still held a grudge against the boy and was silently glaring at the one person who caused them to lose regionals. Mercedes had her arms crossed and was sharing glances with Kurt who was now interested in Rachel's quiet behavior, and wondering what would become of the situation. Although Artie was usually cool in this kind of situation, Tina was holding him back from running over Jesse's foot with his wheelchair. Puck gritted his teeth, but to everyone's surprise didn't make a move to punch him in the face, probably due knowledge that Quinn wouldn't very much enjoy that. Quinn shot Jesse a nervous smile, but couldn't bring herself to say anything at all. Finn looked ready to kill Jesse.

The room remained silent for a long time. Even didn't know what to say. Sure, Jesse was now a student at , but was loyal to New Directions and felt exactly what they felt. Betrayed. He didn't fully trust Jesse, even though as a teacher, he should.

The silence continued until Brittany thrust her hand up into the air. pointed to her, and she opened her mouth to speak.

"What comes after the letter P?" Then the silence ended, and all hell broke loose. Finn jumped up from his seat, his eyes glued to the person he hated most.

"What is he doing here?" He roared. Artie nodded, breaking his wheelchair from Tina's grasp, and wheeling over to Finn's side.

"Am I not allowed to be wherever I wish? It's a free country isn't it?" Jesse questioned cheekily.

"Sorry, Quinn. I can't stand this bastard's face anymore. Someone needs to mess it up!" Puck growled, stepping by Finn's side, "I'm with you man." Finn grinned at him, glad to have more people on his side. Jesse just smiled innocently, as if nothing bad was going on. Quinn rised from her seat.

"C'mon guys. We could end up learning something from him. After all, he won Vocal Adrenaline nationals before." Quinn announced, hoping they would settle down at least a little.

"We could've won regionals if it weren't for this traitor." Kurt said with a tone of disgust.

"I agree with Kurt." Rachel nodded, making Jesse frown a bit, but he understood why. Vocal Adrenaline wouldn't have been nearly as good, if it wasn't for him. They were absolutely right. Still, It was amusing seeing the glee club in a rampage like this.

", I think I speak for all of us when I say, that he is definitely not one of us and should not be allowed in this club." Rachel announced, earning several nods from her team mates who obviusly agreed with her, all except a reluctant Quinn and a quiet Tina.

"If Q comes after P, then what comes after that?" Brittany asked, through the whole mess, ending up being ignored by everyone except Santana who sighed and shook her head, placing a hand on the confused girl's shoulder.

"I say we do a majority vote." Mercedes suggested, knowing that the entire club would most likely vote him out.

"Guys!" yelled, making the room become silent. All eyes were now on , expecting him to tell Jesse to get the heck out of THEIR rehearsing room. Instead sighed and rubbed his forehead in frustration. "It's a rule of the glee club, to let anyone in, no matter what. So, if he wants in, here's nothing you or I could do about it. Anyone's allowed in."

A few of the students glared at the smirking boy, but for the most part everyone quieted down, whispering among themselves about how unfair and stupid the rules are. Finn slung his arm around Rachel's shoulder, as if to protect her. Quinn sighed, sending a dark look towards Puck, who had failed to support her, even though she technically started this mess. After all, wasn't it she who had convinced Jesse to keep trying for Rachel? Puck shrugged, and turned towards Matt and Mike, who were already over the situation and now blabbing away about football.

Jesse slowly walked towards a seat next to Quinn, knowing she was the only person who didn't want to kill him. He gave her a small smile, which she returned. She said nothing to him, knowing that if she did, her fellow glee club members would think she turned on them. They were the only family she had left, since her father kicked her out and she was stripped of her popularity. She didn't want to lose them, so although she wished she could support Jesse, since no one else would, she just couldn't d it at the moment. She wasn't ready to risk everything she had left.

The Guilty Ones

Quinn sighed as she made her way through the doors of her once "favorite place", high school. The morning had started off horribly. She had slept through the sounding of her alarm and her mother's shouts causing her to have to rush to get dressed and ready, her mother was too busy to drive her so she had to take the bus, and on the way there a dog pee'd on her shoes. It was as if the day couldn't get any worse, but she didn't want to jinx it.

She had finally found her way to her locker, although it was tough with all the pushing and shoving in the hallways.

"Hey loser." She growled. Just what she needed a bitchy cheerleader to make her day even worse. She was about to scream "What do you want, Santana?" but was stopped by the sight of five bulky jocks placed behind the sassy girl, all carrying red slushies. She gulped. Maybe she could find a way to just quietly slip away?

In sync the football players threw the slushies at her, soaking her from head to toe in red sticky syrup. So much for the idea of all the glee kids being friends. Besides, what made her do that? What had Quinn ever done to her?

She slowly shuffled her feet over to the bathroom, hoping the mess would wash out of her hair easily. A small smile appeared across her face, once she saw the other girl cleaning purple slushie from her hair.

"Did Santana get you too?" She asked. Rachel looked confused at first, then slowly shook her head.

"Santana's part of the glee club. Of course not. Just another jock." She answered. Quinn shook her head slightly, and sighed.

"Apparently she doesn't seem to like me to much, considering the fact that she got some guys to create this." She motioned to all the red covering her body. Rachel gave a small laugh.

"I have tons of extra clothes. I'm used to having this happen all the time."

"I know." Quinn giggled, accepting the clothes Rachel had dug from her bag. "Still, I'm wondering what Santana has against me."

"You'll probably find out soon enough." Rachel shrugged, rinsing the last of the purple from her hair.

"So how's it been going with...you know?"

"Ugh." Rachel frowned, "He won't leave me alone. At least Finn walks me to my classes anytime he gets the chance. Right now I'm loving how protective he's being. It's working to my advantage." Quinn looked thoughtful for a few seconds, staring off into space. She was the one who nhad encouraged Jesse to go for Rachel, but she hadn't been very supportive.

"Are you sure Jesse just came back to hurt you again?" She questioned. Rachel's eyebrows furrowed and she frowned at the girl.

"Why else would he be back here? He knows he can't change what he's done."

"Rachel! He's here isn't he? Doesn't that tell you something? Why would he try so hard to get you back, if he was just trying to break your heart again?"

"I don't know!"

"If he just wanted to break someone, he could go off and find another girl!"

"I thought you were on my side about this, Quinn!" Rachel screamed. She turned on heel, and stormed out of the bathroom, leaving behind the frustrated blond girl.

The Guilty Ones

"Now let us commence the secret glee club meeting, purposely excluding and HIM." Kurt announced with disgust in his voice. There were confused looks over many faces of the kids.

"Okay guys. We're all gonna vote whether we think it's alright to let Jesse in the club or not." Mercedes explained. Artie silently raised a hand.

"I thought sa-"

"I don't care about what he said. If we vote him out, then we'll just have to force him out of the club."

Kurt strode over to the chalkboard, and picked up a piece of chalk. He drew a straight line across the board. On one side he wrote "For" and on the other "Against." Under the against side he wrote his own name. "Finn."

"Against for sure." Puck nodded to Finn.

"Same." Matt and Mike ended up voting the same as Finn and Puck also.

"Artie."

"Against." He answered simply, nodding towards Tina, who looked a bit nervous.

"Guys." She started, eyeing everyone in the room, "I know that everyone might not agree with me, but I don't think it's that wrong to give Jesse a second chance." The room sounded with gasps, but allowed her to finish her speech, "Sure, things would be awkward with Rachel and Finn, but there isn't chance of Jesse breaking her heart, because she's dating Finn now. And There isn't any competitions coming up, that he could switch teams at the last second, just to put us in a "funk."

Everyone stared at the girl in awe. Tina grinned as she saw that Artie was now grasping her hand gently.

"I change my vote." He declared, giving Tina a small smile.

"He's hot, so I'm all right with it." Santana sighed.

"What she said!" Brittany replied. Kurt frowned and also decided to erase his name from the against column, along with Matt and Mike. Mercedes shrugged and put her name under "For".

"I'm against!" Rachel cried in disgust, horrified by the number of team mates that had actually voted him in.

"I'm for." Quinn smiled, earning a hard glare from her "best friend" She shrugged it off like it was nothing, and turned back to her grinning glee club members.

"So there we have it. Since only three of you were against, he can stay." Kurt sighed, although he had a small smile on his face too.

"If you want to hate on him, go ahead." Mercedes continued, "But just so you know, if you try and beat him up." She eyed Finn, "Then we might all turn on you, so be nice."

Finn growled and Puck rolled his eyes. Rachel frowned and glared to her team mates who didn't see eye to eye with her, while smiling down on Finn and Puck who had seemed to agree with her. Puck was good at holding grudges and Finn just plainly hated Jesse for playing Rachel. Rachel was still disappointed that now, due to her "friends", she would have to spend the rest of this year trying to hide from Jesse.

The Guilty Ones

"Does anyone want to step up to the plate?" asked, clapping his hands together. He searched the room and sighed seeing that no one, not even Rachel who was glaring at Tina and Quinn, had anything to show. He hated when the club was unmotivated like this. He had thought everything was going to be fine after seeing Artie, Tina, Kurt, and Mercedes greet Jesse on their way in the room. Suddenly, he saw a reluctant hand shoot up, so he jumped on the chance.

"I may have a little something." Santana volunteered with a sly grin on her face. She shot Quinn a small glance and grinned deviously.

"Alright! Take it away, Santana!"

Santana stood up, brushed her skirt off, and straightened it. She stood casually in the front of the room, hand on hip, and cued the piano guy. Quinn eyed her, already suspcious of what she was trying to do. She was almost positive that this was another of Santana's ways of trying to hurt her. Well, whatever she was planning, it wasn't going to work. She was a strong independent woman, and some random bitchy cheerleader wasn't going to bring her down one bit. She smiled a bit at how good hat made her feel, although in truth she still didn't feel all that great, knowing that every waking moment of her life, this girl was plotting something against her...along with her muscley jock servants or slaves.

_Maybe I need some rehab,_  
_Or maybe just need some sleep_  
_I've got a sick obsession,_  
_I'm seeing it in my dreams_

Quinn wore an expression of confusion. Where was the hate song? She was certain that Santana was going to sing something insulting, which would result in a chick fight, but now...Ke$ha? Seriously? Santana made rounds around the room, stopping at Quinn's seat, which confused the girl even more? Was the song for her? Was Santana in love with her or something? Quinn made a face at the thought? Then how would that explain the slushie facial?

_I'm looking down every alley,_  
_I'm making those desperate calls_  
_Im staying up all night hoping,_  
_Hit my head against the walls_

She left Quinn's side, smiling, (which caused Quinn to sigh in relief) and danced towards Puck who had an amused smirk spread across his face. She motioned to an excited Mike, and pointed towards the front of the room, signaling for him to entertain the rest of the crowd with his "pop n' locking" She pointed towards Puck and sang the next few lines in a flirty tone.

_What you've got boy is hard to find_  
_Think about it all about it all the time_  
_I'm all strung up my heart is fried_  
_I just cant get you off my mind_

_Because your love, your love, your love, is my drug_  
_Your love your love your love_  
_I said your love, your love, your love, is my drug_  
_Your love your love your love_

Quinn's teeth grinded together, and her hands clenched into fists. She honestly had no idea why she was getting so angry. Puck had always been flirting with other girls. He's knocked Santana up so many times before, and she felt nothing. N-O-T-H-I-N-G. So why was it now that she felt so angry? It felt worse than this morning's cherry slushies. Was she jealous? No freakin' way. Sure, she may have been a little hurt that for a while now, Puck had been faithful to her and now he was flirting to the closest obssessed girl, but Quinn refused to believe she was in love. Puck was alright...she could tolerate him. They had been going out seriously for a little bit npow, but that didn't mean anything. She did not love him she continued to chant through her mind, staring intensely at the two.

_Won't listen to any advice, mamma's telling me to think twice_  
_But left to my own devices i'm addicted its a crisis!_

Quinn scoffed in disgust, as slowly everyone was picked off their seats, dancing in the middle of the room like lunatics. All their faces were full of smiles, and they all looked as though they were enjoying themselves. For some reason it seemed to kill her that Puck wasn't even giving her a glance, he was too busy dancing and smiling at the latina cheerleader.

_My friends think I've gone crazy, my judgment is getting kinda hazy_  
_My status is gonna be affected if I keep it up like a love sick crackhead_

_What you've got boy is hard to find_  
_Think about it all about it all the time_  
_I'm all strung up my heart is fried_  
_I just cant get you off my mind_

_Because your love, your love, your love, is my drug_  
_Your love your love your love_  
_I said your love, your love, your love, is my drug_  
_Your love your love your love_

_I don't care what people say_  
_The rush is worth the price I pay_  
_I get so high when you're with me_  
_But crash and crave you when you are away_

She now found herself to be the only one sitting down, glaring at the girl who was singing flirtaciously to her boyfriend, who really didn't seem to mind it at all. In fact, he seemed to like it. Big deal. He always liked it when girls were all over him. She stared around the room, and felt truly alone. Everyone was having the time of their lives, giggling, laughing, singing all together, dancing, without even noticing the scowl on her face and the fact that she wasn't joining them. Who were these people? Her friends? Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder, which made her feel relieved. So relieved, that someone actually noticed her. Someone cared. Even though for a second she was disappointed when she looked up and saw that it wasn't Puck, she felt grateful.

"Hey." Jesse greeted giving her a small smile. "I noticed that you were all alone, and looked pretty upset about it. What's wrong?"

"Nothing" She lied, shaking her head, knowing that he also knew she was lying. She felt a hand on ehr other shoulder, and slowly, a smile creeped on her face. She wasn't alone. More than one person was able to notice her, over Puck and Santana's upbeat song and flirting, so suck on that Puckerman! "You didn't want to have fun with everyone else? I'm fine here."

"What kind of best friend would I be if I had fun without a thought to how you feel? Are you alright, Quinn?" Rachel asked in a worried tone, giving the girl a small smile. She gave a quick glance to Jesse, hoping that he knew that she didn't come over here because of him. It was all for Quinn. She glared at him, before turning back to her friend.

"No." She answered. Rachel wrapped her arms around the girl who just breathed a sigh, refusing to let any emotion show with the exception of anger.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Rachel asked, hoping to be helpful. Sure, she was no Emma Pillsbury, and her advise may not be the best, but she could have her moment anytime now.

"No." She answered coldly, but refusing to break from the girl's grasp, unexpectedly.

_So I got a question;_  
_Do you want to have a summer party in my basement?_  
_Do I make your heart beat like an 808 drum?_  
_Is my love, your drug?_  
_Your drug? your drug? your drug?_  
_Is my love, your drug?_

_Because your love, your love, your love, is my drug_  
_Your love your love your love_  
_I said your love, your love, your love, is my drug_  
_Your love your love your love_

Santana winked at Puck and gave him a quick peck on the cheek, in which he winked back. Quinn refused to even glance at the two. She felt disgusted and betrayed, and at this moment only wanted to pay any attention to the two that gave thought to her right now. Jesse and Rachel.

"You're a really good dancer." Santana giggled, twirling her hair with her finger. "You wanna do something Friday?"

"Sure." He answered with a cocky grin on his face. Now he was just putty in her hands. It wouldn't be long until Noah Puckerman was Santana's again, and it disgusted Quinn. Normally she's storm out with a "Screw you, Puckerman." but now she couldn't bring herself to say that she hated him, because she really wasn't sure if she did. One thing she was sure of, was that if Santana thought this was the end, then she was dead wrong. The battle may have been won for today, but the war had just started.


	4. Better In Time

**I've just noticed that I always find some way to make mistakes throughout this fic. Chapter 2, I accidentally made Jesse in Rachel's class, but he's a senior? In Chapter 2 I forgot to add a disclaimer, and I forgot to thank the reviewers in Chapter 3. Wow. So I'll start with those (Disclaimer: I don't own Glee, any of the characters, or Better In Time by Leona Lewis) Thank you to the following for reviewing for Chapter 2: micapetrelli, Maiqu, Sea Serpent, Scene Scene Jellybean, BookLover223. Thank you for the following for reviewing Chapter 3: Maiqu and krista27**

**I swear I will give virtual cupcakes with any flavor icing to all the reviewers for the next one. Seriously. There were so many other things I wanted to add in this chapter, but it started to get long, so it'll have to wait for the next. I'm not too sure how I'll add Tina or Artie further into the story, but I have a pretty good idea for Mercedes, her being a total gossiper. The next chapter will definately have some Brittany and more Kurt. Enjoy!**

Tina was still so unsure. How many people hated her for her little speech yesterday? She was just expressing her feelings, and she knew by heart that she was absolutely right. Although mostly everyone seemed to agree with her, she had a feeling that they didn't really. Kurt was just going with what everyone else voted because he didn't want to be left out, and Mercedes just wanted to see some drama unfold. The only one that she felt really listened to what she said and changed their mind because of it was Artie. Artie was always so supportive of her opinion, and she loved it. Whenever she felt she was alone, she always thought of him and knew that she wasn't. Still, she couldn't shake the glares of Rachel. Finn hadn't blamed her for it. The only person he really blamed, was Jesse himself, and Puck...Puck just plainly hated anyone who played him in any way.

Although everyone claimed Jesse had abused their trust, in reality, they never truly trusted him. Only Rachel really trusted him. Everyone else, she had to admit that included herself, knew from the beginning that he was playing her, but once he joined New Directions, was forced to keep quiet about it. So why did everyone hold grudges against him? The only one who deserved to, were Rachel and maybe Finn, but only because he's her boyfriend, and in a relationship it's almost as if your feelings are your partner's feelings. So today, Artie and Tina decided that they would befriend Jesse, because it looked as if he needed some friends and he never really hurt them personally.

"Hi." Artie greeted with a small smile, that could easily be misunderstood for sympathy. After all, Jesse had no friends in this school, except for maybe Quinn, which struck Tina as strange. Quinn never seemed like a girl who easily warmed up to others, so how was it that they were automatically friends?

He seemed a little shocked that anyone in New Directions was actually trying to make conversation with him, but soon returned the smile and greeting. He wondered how yesterday's anger and hatred suddenly faded into gentle and kindness. He was almost positive that most of the club hadn't truly warmed up to him, but it was nice to know that they were trying despite the things he had done.

"We were wondering if you wanted to hang out with us after glee practice today." Tina stated, trying to sound as nice as possible. "Maybe you could get to know some of us better? I could ask Mercedes and Kurt to come."

He gave the two a grateful look, before answering "I'd love to." He actually kind of felt accepted. Vocal Adrenaline only ever respected him for his amazing vocals, so this was different and new. All conversations with Vocal Adrenaline kids were strictly business, whether about song choices, choreography, or who would take leads. It made him a bit nervous, although he knew he shouldn't be, to know that he was actually going to try and make friends with these kids. Unlike how easy it was to chat with Rachel when they were dating, the majority had an incredible lack of musical knowledge, only making conversation with them worse. That was one thing he knew. It was pretty easy to talk to Quinn, but only because they usually talked about both their problems. He gave her advice on Santana, Puck, and Finn problems and she gave him advice on Rachel. This was different. This was trying to make friends, with people that he didn't even think he had anything in common with. This was a challenge. Not to say that he didn't love a challenge.

The day passed slowly for Jesse, making every second feel like a minute, every minute feel like an hour, and every hour feel like an eternity. He spent most his time ignoring the teachers, while his thoughts dirfted to Rachel and how the hell he was suppossed to win her back from Frankenteen. Why would you name your child after fishes anyways? It was utterly ridiculous.

After what seemed like centuries, the time he both dreaded and eagerly awaited finally came. He didn't know why he eagerly wanted to be accepted by this bunch. With the exception of Finn who he hated for the fact that he had hurt Rachel many times before, yet she was always able to find it in herslef to forgive him soon after, and Puck who was all together too roudy and a stupid player after what happened with Quinn.

So far no one had said anything. Here they were, the four friends from New Directions, and him, Jesse , sitting on couches in Kurt Hummel's basement, totally silent. It would've made things a whole lot better if Kurt, Mercedes, Artie, and Tina would talk among themselves. Sure, he would be ignored and left out of the conversation, but there would be no awkward silence.

"So...?" Tina started nervously, only earning a small mumble from Mercedes, who had a bored look strewn across her face. She eyed Kurt, who silently nodded in response, causing a huge excited grin to come across her face. It was as if they had their own weird silent language. Weird.

"Why'd you join New Directions again?" Mercedes pounced. Jesse sighed. He was hoping no one would ask. Telling them almost made him feel like a fool. Seriously. He tells Rachel he loves her and goes to New Direction, then goes back to Vocal Adrenaline, breaks her heart, and now he goes back to New Directions, hoping to get her back? It sounded lame, but there was no escaping the excited impatient looks of Kurt Hummel and Mercedes Jones, New Directions gossip queens.

"I'd rather not say. You'd all hate me for it."

"You want to break Rachel's heart again?" Artie questioned, jumping to conclusions, earning Jesse glares from around the room. Kurt stood up defensively.

"Only we can hurt her." He declared.

"No. Actually, I want to do the exact opposite." He announced, quieting down the group, who were seconds ago about to beat him up or something. None of them wanted a repeat of last month. Everyone in a funk and their lead singer in tears.

"Meaning?" Tina asked, although she had a pretty clear idea of what he meant. She just wanted to be sure, and to hear out loud that her suspicions were true.

"I want Rachel back...or I at least want her to hear the full story. Although right now, that seems impossible." He breathed a sigh, earning sympathetic looks from Artie and Tina. Kurt sighed heavily. Artie and Tina were nice, but how could they not keep holding a grudge? How could they feel sorry for him, if he got what he deserved. If anyone in New Directions smashed an egg on his forehead, they would lose his trust forever. With the exception of Finn. He still hadn't fully forgiven Matt, Mike, and Puck for the slushie facials and the trips to the dumpster for the past few years, even if he considered them his team mates now.

"It's not gonna be easy." Mercedes shrugged. Kurt nodded in agreement.

"We could help you, but she's not going to forgive you right away. It could take weeks, or months, or even years." Kurt sighed.

He was surprised at himself for agreeing to help Jesse get Rachel Berry back, but in the pit of his stomach, the guilt eating at him told him why. Kurt's little crush on Finn, was never going to go away, and it remained strong as ever. As long as it was like this, he would always want Finn for himself. Even without him, everything seemed to work out to his advantage. Finn who was head over heels in love with Quinn, slowly broke up with her and then was dating Rachel, who was taken by Jesse. At that time he was single, and Kurt still cursed himself for not being even more bold, but now...now he had another chance. If Jesse actually finds a way to win Rachel back, then Finn if free game and will sooner or later, with Kurt's hard work, become his. It would all work perfectly. Kurt was sure of it.

The Guilty Ones

Rachel placed a reassuring hand on Quinn's shoulder, and shot her a small sad smile. It was almost funny how they had that little quarrel in the bathroom, and then after the Puck and Santana incident they were best friends again. Quinn was over being upset about Puck and Santana. While yesterday she had a sleepover with Rachel, in which she broke downand cried, today she was full of fury and anger. She kept swearing she's kill Puck in his sleep and drag Santana into a pit of vicious mountain lions. So now Rachel was past the point of comforting, hugging, and whispering that "It's all right.", because this morning when she tried that, Quinn snapped at her, claiming that "It's not all right." and then plotting more ways of killing and covering up Puck and Santana's death. She decided to try a new approach to helping Quinn feel better.

"Who needs Puck anyways! You can do so much better, Quinn." She attempted, only to get more rantings of beating and killing Puck.

"You're absolutely right. Next time I see that creep, my fist will be connecting with his face." She growled back. What Rachel had meant to do, was boost the girl's confidence, not encourage her violent acts towards Puck. A flash of amusement appeared in the blond girls eyes, and immediately after, she said her goodbyes, rushing off as fast as she could. Rachel was just hoping that she wasn't off to make Puck face her wrath. She flinched, as she felt a familiar touch on her shoulder.

"What do you want?" She snapped, almost instantly. She grumbled, seeing that she just couldn't wipe that stupid look off his face, even if she secretly loved it.

"I think you know what I want or what I'll always want." He replied. She sighed. It was like Sue and trophies, she just couldn't seem to get Jesse off her back. Sometimes, she was worried that she would never be able to.

"I already told you that I wasn't ready to hear an explanation. I may never be." Rachel groaned, "Besides, didn't my song tell you anything?" And there it was again, that cocky yet slightly adorable grin. She shook the thought from her head. There was no way she was ever going to let him know she still liked him. He could read her, almost as well as she could read herself, so it would be difficult to cover her feelings up, but she could do it.

"It depends whether I believed that you were expressing your true feelings through the song." He grinned. She groaned again, disappointed that the song didn't work like Quinn suggested the first time. Had she not preformed it to perfection, like she thought she had? But she had never had a preformance that was not perfect. It was impossible. Then it hit her like a ton of bricks. The preformance wasn't believable, because all of it was lies. She had based it all off of lies of being over him, when clearly, she knew she was not. Although she was hoping he didn't know that just yet.

"The next one will." She promised, sounding determined to do this right. This time, she would truly express her feelings through the song. She grabbed his hand, which threw him off guard, and started toward the auditorium. "I'll ask to write us a pass later."

She wanted to express how she felt. No matter what, she did not want a repeat of last month's broken heart. She didn't want the feeling of being alone and vulnerable and broken. She still didn't think that all the pieces of her heart were back togetehr, and if that were to happen again...then maybe her heart would never be whole. If Jesse was out of her life for good, then maybe, just maybe she could try and actually forget him and live happily ever after. Although that idea all together still hurt her. Before Jesse broke her heart, she couldn't imagine life without him, and it was funny how she still felt that now that he was back. Even if she was desperately trying to push him away.

She climbed on stage, thinking hard of the perfect song, until she finally got it.

It's been the longest winter without you  
I didn't know where to turn to  
See somehow I can't forget you  
After all that we've been through

Going coming thought I heard a knock  
Who's there no one  
Thinking that I deserve it  
Now I realize that I really didn't know  
If you didn't notice you mean everything  
Quickly I'm learning to love again  
All I know is I'm gonna be OK

Thought I couldn't live without you  
It's gonna hurt when it heals too  
It'll all get better in time  
And even though I really love you  
I'm gonna smile cause I deserve to  
It'll all get better in time

I couldn't turn on the TV  
Without something there to remind me  
Was it all that easy  
To just put aside your feelings

If I'm dreaming don't wanna laugh  
Hurt my feelings but that's the path  
I believe in  
And I know that time will heal it  
If you didn't notice boy you meant everything  
Quickly I'm learning to love again  
All I know is I'm gonna be OK

Thought I couldn't live without you  
It's gonna hurt when it heals too  
It'll all get better in time  
And even though I really love you  
I'm gonna smile cause I deserve to  
It'll all get better in time

Since there's no more you and me  
It's time I let you go  
So I can be free  
And live my life how it should be  
No matter how hard it is I'll be fine without you  
Yes I will

Thought I couldn't live without you  
It's gonna hurt when it heals too  
It'll all get better in time  
And even though I really love you  
I'm gonna smile cause I deserve to  
It'll all get better in time

There was an awkward silence in the room, as the song finished up. Rachel's eyes flickered to various spots in the auditiorium, refusing to even glance at him. She cleared her throat.

"Well, will you leave me alone?" He was slightly hurt by her choice of words, but quickly ignored that and answered her question with a simple "No," which at first made her smile a bit, which could've easily just been a trick of the eye, but then she scowled.

"Why not?" She demanded, angrily. Why was he doing this to her? Why did he still have so much control over her. Even though she had vowed that she wouldn't play with the fire that is him ever again, for some reason, even at this distance, he still had the ability to toy with her feelings. It irritated and agrivated her. She often wished she had that ability over him. Maybe then, she could hurt him as badly as he hurt her, or worse.

"Because I love you." Rachel was taken aback by this. Again, she was speechless, frozen in place not knowing how to respond. He had once again stolen her breath away. In the past month, Finn had declared his love for her many times, but none of those times had she felt the chills she felt now. She hated this feeling, but loved it just the same. It was as if someone had just placed fifty heaters in the room and turned them all to high. It was too hot and uncomfortable, but at the same time felt so right.

"I have to go now." She finally choked out, trying her hardest to scurry away from this awkward situation. She knew she had loads to think about, now knowing that he actually had geniuine feelings. He wasn't going to try and hurt her again, she was sure about that. The only question was, where did they stand then? She didn't want to forgive him yet, for all the things he had done in the past, but at the same time her want for him to disappear from her life was abolished.

When she finally stumbled out of the auditorium, he was mentally cursing himself. What in hell made him say that? It was just a spur of the moment kind of thing, but now that he realized what he'd done, he obviously regretted it. He left the auditorium, dwelling on all the ways he had just screwed himself over.

The Guilty Ones

Kurt was sure of one thing. He had been thinking about it all night, and for once he was glad that his dad made another room for Finn, because he could think in private. Although Kurt was well aware of the fact that a lesson should have been learned from the whole "faggy incident. He wasn't sure what lesson he was expected to take in. Kurt was still as certain as ever, that Finn could have the ability to change. Who ever said that he absolutely had to be straight for life? Kurt Hummel could do anything he set his mind to. That was one thing he thanked his dad for teaching him.

That is why, Kurt had been thinking and devising plans all night. He was pretty sure that sometime in the future, Finn Hudson would be his, but meanwhile he had nothing to do but ponder about the steps it would take to getting there. All of last night, he had been lying in bed writing his thoughts in a little journal his dad had given him for his tenth birthday. He really hadn't found much use for it through the years, until now. Recently he had deemed it his "Finn book" or as he liked to abriviate FB.

When Kurt awoke in the morning, he knew that he was ready for anything coming at him. Kurt had written down scenarios and ways to solve any problem coming at him for any obstacle in the way. Even the weirdest situations were written down in the FB. He had such a variety, from another threesome with Brittany and Santana to a wacky love story between him and . Kurt was ready for any obstacle in the way of Finn and his future. He had even spent twelve pages on the current obstacle that is Rachel Berry. Of course, Kurt had the journel hidden in a place no one would ever find it. There would probably be a huge riot if anyone in the house had read the book, so it was obviously necessary to have a clever hiding spot for the journel.

"Kurt. You look like you haven't slept all night. Anything wrong?" Burt Hummel asked, examining the boy's expression, to see if he could find any trace of uneasiness to tell if something had been bothering his son. He exhaled a light sigh, after being able to read nothing on his son's face.

"Allergies." Kurt claimed, "I get them a lot during the spring." Kurt wasn't too sure whether his dad actually bought the lie, for he had just breathed yet another sigh, and exited the room with a quick "I hope you're feeling better tomorrow then."

"A growing boy needs sleep." Burt mumbled to himself, before joining Finn's mom in the kitchen for breakfast, leaving Kurt with a secretive grin.

The Guilty Ones

"Puckerman!" Quinn screamed, sounding trouble throughout the school, and for once, since her pregnancy stories came out, the hallway cleared for her at the sight of the terror. After all, A cheated Quinn Fabray + Leftover pregnancy hormones = Not a happy camper.

Quinn, being held back by Rachel, was able to stay low about Santana for a day or two, but after hearing from Santana about their "hot" make-out sessions, which obviously was more than just that, she couldn't hold her anger back anymore. Rachel had once again, suggested singing about it, but Puck deserved a good hard smack in the face. So now, here she was, ready to deliver the hell that Puck well deserved.

"What's up?" He turned to face the girl, "Woah. Well, you look..."

"Shut it!" She snapped, "What's been going on between you and that bitchy cheerleader?" She tapped her foot against the ground, just knowing that whatever answer he was about to give, wouldn't be a truthful one. She couldn't have been any more right.

"Relax. We've just been hanging out."

"And you call hanging out, having sex with her while forgetting that your girlfriend even exists?" Her face reddened with each stressed word. Her fists were clenched, yet she refused to show any signs of weakness to him, or let him close the huge gap between them.

"Who said I did any of that stuff?" He shrugged.

"Who said you didn't?" She cleared her throat, breathing in and out, to rid her of the frustration that was getting to her, "I know what you did."

"And what's that?" He snorted. She gritted her teeth. His playing dumb, was agrivating her even more, making the situation worse on him, if he even realized that. At this point, she couldn't help it anymore. Heck, she didn't know if she even cared anymore, she just let the tears surface, threatening to fall.

"Don't play dumb with me, Puckerman." Her fingers ran through her hair, tugging at it. Honestly, she felt like pulling her hair out. Noah Puckerman was being stupid, idiotic, and irritating, "Well? Just admit it, you slept with Santana!"

"I slept with Santana." She rose her hand high in the air, adding all her frustration and anger into one hard, mean, painful slap across the face. He had this coming since Thursday afternoon, but strangely it didn't make her feel any better. Sure, she had just served justice to that bastard, but it didn't erase the pain of feeling cheated, hurt, and betrayed. Even if she had slapped him a thousand times, she'd still remember how she had honestly thought he had changed his ways for her only to find that he hadn't changed at all. That Santana could easily, through one four minute long song, make him return to his disgusting habit of fooling around with every girl he finds.

"It's over." She announced, before hurrying away to find a quiet spot to finally let the tears flow., although she honestly couldn't figure out why she was crying in the first place, because she knew that Noah Puckerman wasn't worth her tears. She was too good for that scumbag.


	5. Revelry

**I really have nothing to say about this one, I'm actually pretty satisfied with it, especially Kurt and Brittany parts which I happen to love...and strangely I actually liked the Emma part. Usually I really don't like Emma and Will, because I think they're kinda boring. Either that, or Emma just irritates me, except for the time when she called Will a slut. I was cheering her on the whole time! I think this is my longest chapter...it's about 5,000 words...The only part I didn't like, was maybe a few sentences...other than that, all the scenes were really good this time :) I don't own Glee or any of the characters, and I hope you all enjoy!**

She wasn't the smartest girl in the world, which she was well aware of, as was everyone else, but she wasn't always confused about everything. Sure, she still forgot her middle name sometimes, couldn't turn on a computer, and wasn't quite sure what came after R in the alphabet, but when it came to Santana's matters, she tried her best to be serious, because Santana was the one thing that mattered most to her. So when she rounded the corner, only to find Quinn Fabray crying her eyes out in an empty bathroom, she figured that Santana had won.

Santana confided in her for everything, although Brittany almost never gave intelligent answers or good advice. She wasn't so surprised when Santana had informed her about her plan to make Puck her's, but she was slightly irritated. It wasn't so irritating that she'd sulk or cry out about it, but she just couldn't get it off her mind. Maybe it was due to the fact that she was so sure in the past that Santana just liked to fool around with guys, but now she wasn't so sure. In fact, now it seemed as if she actually truly liked Puck, and that just slightly irritated Brittany. Brittany didn't like changes, and she didn't want Santana to change. Changes confused her and happened too fast, it made life seem as if the next second, something big could happen and everything would be lost, and she didn't like that thought. Not at all.

"What are you doing?" She asked, cocking her head to the side, like a confused little puppy, although she knew perfectly what had happened. Quinn picked her head up a little to give the girl a sarcastic look. Her eyes were puffy and red rimmed, her nose was running a bit, her cheeks were bright pink, and her lips were quivering a bit. Brittany ignored how horrible she looked, still pretending to be as oblivious as she normally was.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Quinn snapped, a few more tears sliding down her cheeks, and dripping onto the floor. Brittany shrugged a bit and murmured a humorous answer.

"Leaking water?" Quinn shot her a hard cold glare, although Brittany could've sworn a few chuckles escaped her lips. "Santana's been obsessing over your boyfriend lately." She wasn't too sure if it was a good idea to show her feelings, but she just wasn't all too sure of what else to do.

"Ex boyfriend." Quinn corrected, motioning to the mess of tears that was her face. Brittany nodded slowly, showing the girl that she understood what was going on, yet she didn't console or help Quinn, she just sat and finally let out all her thoughts and emotions as if she was talking to herself. She knew Quinn was present, but she never gave her even a glance she just stared into space as she spilled all her feelings to the girl.

**The Guilty Ones**

Emma Pillsbury just wasn't sure where she stood with Will anymore. He had told her that he loved her and kissed her, yet everything hadn't just magically become right after that. In fact, they hadn't talked to each other since. Emma was very very confused. As much as she knew that she wanted Will, she just didn't know how to feel. She couldn't just fall bakc into his arms, after knowing that he cheated on her. He made out with the Vocal Adrenaline director, and had a sleepover with April Rhodes. At the same time, she couldn't say that she didn't trust him at all. As silly as it seems, she still trusted Will Schuester...just not as much as before.

So when Will just happened to come into Emma's office to talk, she froze.

"Oh...um...Hello Will. What brings you here." She motioned towards two empty seats, across from her's, sitting at the end of the desk. "Please take a seat."

"Emma. I know it may seem like too much to ask, but could I please have a second chance." For Emma, there was no thinking about her answer, because it was obvious. As Ken once said before, Will was a married man and she "couldn't do much better in this town." except this time, Will wasn't a married man. He was single and he wanted her, and she was in love with him. There was nothing left to question.

"Will." She started, looking the man she loved straight in the eye, "I...I...um...I'm not so sure of what to say." She squeezed her eyes closed, just wishing for this moment to end, she wished she were back at home, in the comfort of her own bedroom, where she could sob about how unfair life was and wonder where they fell apart...where everything went wrong...but no. She was sitting here, across from Will Schuester, stuck on the decision of whether or not to give him a second chance, and although she very much wanted to. Very very much. In fact, she'd been dreaming about this moment, ever since that time in the teacher's lounge where she had accused him of being a slut. Dreaming that somehow, they would end up together no matter what, like some cheesy romance drama, but she knew that no matter how much she wanted this, she couldn't have it.

It wasn't because she was dating her dentist. She easily could break up with him, and twirl back into Will's arms. It wasn't because she didn't love him anymore. She loved him very much. Actually, so much that it was actually going to emotionally kill her to answer to Will. It was because she knew that it wasn't right for her. It wasn't good for her. For all she knew, if she were to accept Will back into her life, it could come back to bite her behind, because when Will hurt and betrayed her the first time, something inside her died. Perhaps it was her once indestructible trust for Will, of course it wasn't indestructible now, but she just didn't know. All she knew was that what she needed now, was to start making the right decisions. Decisions that wouldn't leave her with nothing. Decisions where she could only benefit from. The decision to give Will a second chance, was a risk. With risks, you can't tell if you will gain or lose from them. You can't tell if they'll hurt you or get you that long awaited happy ending. Emma wasn't ready for a risk. Even so, the next few words she was about to whisper, was a risk itself. With this answer, she was about to risk her happiness...her fairytale happy ending.

"Will, I don't think I can do that."

He had it coming. From the moment he first made out with due to frustration from Emma's illness. He had it coming, and he knew he deserved this, but that didn't stop the pain and hurt. Because while he knew that he had done wrong and fully deserved the rejection, it didn't help from the fact that he was in love with Emma Pillsbury and regretted everything he had done that had hurt her. He just couldn't help but think about the "what ifs" About what could have happened if he hadn't been so dumb, and hadn't betrayed her trust. What if he had stayed truthful, and waited patiently until Emma's OCD was cured? Would they have ended up married, living in a dream house, with two kids?

But no, he had screwed his future over, because even though he could start all over again, find someone new and try to live happily with them, it wouldn't erase the thoughts of what could have happened. It couldn't erase the feelings he had for her. In fact, it couldn't erase anything. The heartache, the blame, the memories. He wasn't sure if he'd ever get over this. Therefore, there was only one clear solution. To try and win her trust back, and then just keep trying. He would only stop, when or if he knew that she didn't love him anymore.

"I'm sorry for everything that I have put you through." He spoke, grasping her tiny hands in his. It wasn't until a few seconds later, that she was finally left alone, the whole office to herself, just to sit and think about what just happened, and what was going to happen now. Meanwhile, found himself singing to himself through the hallways...A sad verse of a song that explained exactly how he was feeling.

What a night for a dance

You know that I'm a dancing machine

With a fire in my bones and the sweet taste of kerosene

I got lost in the light, so high I don't want to come down

To face the loss of the good thing that I had found

Woo hoo hoo

In the dark of the night I can hear you calling my name

With the harvest of hearts I still feel full of pain

So I drink and I smoke and I ask if you're ever around

Even though it was me that drove us right in the ground

See the time we shared it was precious to me

But all the while I was dreaming of revelry

Born to run, baby run like a stream down a mountainside

With the wind at my back I don't ever even bat an eye

Just know it was you all along who had a hold of my heart

But the demon and me where the best of friends from the start

So the time we shared it was precious to me

All the while I was dreaming of revelry

And I told myself boy away you go

It rained so hard it felt like snow

Everything came tumbling down on me

In the back of the woods, in the dark of the night

The paleness of the hold moonlight

Everything just felt so incomplete

dreaming of revelry

The Guilty Ones

Today, Kurt was obviously lost in his own thoughts. All day, he had been spacing out. He had recieved many worried looks from Tina, Artie, and Mercedes, who had been trying all day to grab his attention, only to fail. Even now, they were having a quite amusing conversation about his recent behavior. The thing that was on Kurt's mind? Finn.

He had been in deep in thought all day. It was at times like these, that he wished he could confide in his previous thoughts, all recorded in the FB, but he feared that it would somehow be discovered and cause an outrage within the glee club. Then he would be deemed lamest kid in school, be kicked of the Cheerios squad, and be made fun of everyday with constant slushie facials. Oh the joy of McKinely high school. His

thoughts trailed back to Finn. While he had their whole future planned out, the steps towards it still bothered him. He had planned out ways to squirm Finn out of any relationship he could possibly have with anyone, and while he fully believed that the whole "changing along the way" process would surely work, what bothered him was the fact that if everything moved the way it was moving now, he'd be at least 80 by the time Finn is finally his.

There was only one way he could prevent this from happening...by speeding the process. And how was he to do that? The answer was simple. All he really needed to do, was find a way to get Jesse and Rachel back together, sooner than they would if he had left them alone. Besides, hadn't he promised Jesse he'd help him? Now he was going to keep his promise. Not that he hadn't planned to before, but he was more motivated now, now that he would benefit from it. It wasn't too hard anyways, all he really needed to do, was find a dark small place to stick the two in and voila!

But how would he go about getting them there? It was evident that Rachel wanted nothing to do with Jesse after the egg incident, while he wanted everything to do with her but little time. After all, he was in his senior year, and would be going to a university somewhere after summer. Not only that, but Kurt felt a little bored about the whole "sitting and waiting" thing. He didn't just want to sit and watch while events played themselves out in his relationship with Finn. He wasn't that kind of guy. Kurt wanted to take action, but at the same time he didn't want to chase Finn off. What to do...what to do...First thing's first, get Rachel and Jesse back together. He could think about making his advances to Finn along the way.

Although he did feel bad about manipulating his friends to take part in his plan (Of course, they would have no idea it ties into his plan of Finn and him) he knew it must happen. After all, he couldn't carry out the whole process himself. He needed more than one brain, more than one idea to do this. Therefore, for the first time in the whole day he finally spoke up to his three friends at the lunch table.

"Were you guys serious about helping with Berry?" At first the three seemed surprised that Kurt was finally back to his talkative gossip loving self, but soon forgot about Kurt's previous behavior, and carried the conversation on as normal.

"It should be fine. He has good intentions this time, right?" Tina mused, glancing towards Artie for insight, who just smiled warmly back at the girl. Kurt just couldn't help but cringe at how sweet those two always were. Was this why Sue Sylvester always shoved the two into the lockers, whenever she passed by them? Or was it just because they were in glee?

"What do we got to lose? If Rachel finds out that we're helping him, we could always deny it. I mean seriously, who does she trust more?" Mercedes pointed out, making the other two nod their heads. Kurt let the three finish making some more vital points. As soon as he was positively sure that they were all on board for helping Jesse, he asked for ideas.

"How do we get them together?" He inquired, although he knew damn well, of several ways to do this. But it wouldn't hurt to trick them into giving him their input. He scowled, when he saw the three in their "thinking positions." How hard is it to think up a simple match making scheme? He could think up three in less than 5 minutes. Instantly, he regretted asking their help. Although they were his friends, in this kind of situation, in which you were required to be cunning and precise, they were no help at all.

"I got it! We could try setting them up on a blind date." Artie suggested. Kurt seriously felt like banging his head against the table, but not only would that be disrespectable, but he doubted the janitor did anything but a mediocre job in cleaning lunch tables. No help at all.

"Why would Rachel go on a blind date?" Mercedes sneered, "Remember Finn? Her boyfriend?" Finally, Kurt beamed, someone with some common sense!

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Artie questioned. When Mercedes gave no reply, Artie and Tina couldn't help but snicker a bit, which made Mercedes really annoyed.

"Wouldn't it be nicer if he just honestly tells her that he still likes her?" Tina asked, only to have her ideas crushed by Mercedes noisy laughs.

"Are you for real? What makes you think him being honest will make her take him back?" She snorted, "If some dude cracked an egg on my forehead, then told me he still liked me, I'd tell him that he'd better run." Kurt rubbed his forehead, just sitting and observing Tina, Artie, and Mercedes bicker and argue about why each other's plans were so stupid. Someone please remind him why he had requested their help in the first place? On second thought, if someone really were to remind him, it'd just make him feel even more like an idiot.

Now he had dug a hole for himself. If he didn't use any of their ideas, it would just hurt their feelings, and then where would that leave him? They would like him as much as they like Rachel, which isn't all that much. So in short, he had to use some of their ideas, even though they were stupid, and probably would slow his plans down even more. Great, just great.

The Guilty Ones

A loud "thud" sounded the room, followed by a small squeal. , at first was confused by this sudden noise. He thought he would have the house to himself for the day, since he had the day off after his long business trip, but that small feint squeal had him thinking otherwise. He knew for a fact that his husband was at work, after all he had watched him leave the house himself, and he simply couldn't believe that he could make such a sound anyways. So when he reluctantly dragged himself up the staircase, he wasn't so surprised to find that his daughter had just fallen out of bed.

"It's Thursday, and it's..." He took a quick glance at his watch, "9:23. Aren't you supposed to be in school?" Usually, Rachel would be the first one awake in the Berry household with her morning routines, but today she was sprawled across the floor looking pale as a sheet and extremely tired. She looked as if she had a hangover, while knew for a fact, that Rachel would never turn to alchohol. After realizing that he wasn't going to get a response out of his half-asleep daughter, he shrugged and decided to call her in as sick.

It wasn't until 11:00, that Rachel stumbled down the stairs, fully dressed and awake. She mumbled a quick "good morning." to her father who was sipping coffee at the kitchen table. She tried her best to avoid eye contact with her dad, because she knew he would ask what was wrong. Honestly, she didn't want to tell her dad that she'd been up all night thinking about the whole thing with Jesse, so hard that her head felt as though it was going to burst open any second now. Her head hurt so much that she couldn't even think of an excuse if he did happen to ask.

"How are you feeling?" He asked, making Rachel curse under her breath. He was her father, so it was really just his job to make sure she'd okay, but she really wished he hadn't.

"Horrible." She muttered, pouring some milk into a bowl of cereal. He nodded, but kept his eyes glued to her with a worried expression. She knew her hair was in a horrible tangled bedhead mess and she looked like hell. Judging from her dad's expression, she knew that the questions would just keep coming. There was no stopping them, and that was okay, because she didn't even have the energy to try.

"Is there a reason to this?"

"I haven't been drinking or anything!" She let out an uneasy laugh, which eventually ended in grumbles. She felt like she was going to fall back asleep any moment now, but there was no getting around this inevitable conversation, so she decided that she wouldn't put up a fight. She just silently prayed her dad wouldn't be too worried about her boy troubles, "Jesse told me that he loves me. It kept me up all night thinking, and now I have a major headache."

"What about that other boy? Was it Fish or something?"

"Finn." She corrected, "I'm not sure how I feel about Finn anymore. I loved him before...before Jesse came, and then I never quite felt that way again, but even now, sometimes I feel things I used to feel around him. Even if it's not the same things I used to feel with Jesse, how will I know whether it's love or not?"

"You'll figure it out." He encourgaed, smoothing his daughter's unruly hair, with a gentle smile on his face, "Besides, isn't this the same Jesse that broke my daughter's heart a month ago?" Rachel giggled at her father's overprotective behavior.

Rachel had to act like she was all better, like she was feeling fine, so that she wouldn't worry her dad, but inside she was still feeling extremely crummy. She didn't know what she was going to do. In fact, she never wanted to see Jesse again, because she just didn't know how to face him anymore. He deserved to be rejected, but at the same time she was afraid that if she rejected him he'd leave her forever. She didn't want that either.

So if she didn't want Jesse to get too close to her heart ever again, but never wanted him to leave, where did she want him? There was only one thing she could think of. Friend? She soon found herself doubting that thought. What if Jesse didn't want to be friends? What if he only wanted to be her boyfriend again, and would leave if he couldn't be that?

The Guilty Ones

Rachel's father breathed a sigh as he made his way to the door, after it had rung. When he pulled open the door, it took him a while to remember who the boy standing there was, but once he had remembered he slammed the door shut as hard as he could manage, which is pretty hard. The doorbell ha drun g again, and he grumbled before pulling it open with so much force, that it hit the wall behind it.

"What do you want punk?" He growled, but the boy remained unfazed, as if the adult hadn't just acted extremely rude to him.

"Is Rachel here?" He asked nonchalantly, smirking at the older man, who once again growled at the boy. While he had pretended in front of his daughter, that he was perfectly fine with her mixed feelings about this little asshole, in truth, he wanted nothing more than to punch the boy in the face for disturbing Rachel once again. Besides, he preferred the fish boy over this punk, and was actually quite glad to hear that Rachel had taken finally started to take likings to people other than Jesse.

"You listen good." He roared, grasping the collar of the boy's shirt so tightly that it started choking him. "You stay away from my daughter. Got that?" A dark storm was brewing in Jesse's eyes, as he glared at the father. His lips curved upward into a challenging grin.

"And if I don't?" He finally managed, tearing away from 's grasp. The adult's mouth flew open, searching for threatening words to send Jesse running off. He kind of got the feeling that no matter what he was to say, Jesse wouldn't falter, so he only spoke a pathetic reply.

"You just stay away." He warned once more, slamming the door behind him. Jesse wore an amused expression, shrugged, and headed the opposite direction until he settled on a nearby bench. Even if , who understandably didn't seem to like him very much, wouldn't let him inside, he decided to just wait. Rachel would have to come out of that house sooner or later. Besides, he still needed time to think...about this, about everything.

He had originally come to apologize for yesterday and how he had just made everything so confusing for her, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized that he had nothing to apologize for. Other than the incident of a month ago, but yesterday he had done nothing wrong. He told her that he loved her? So what? Was it so wrong for him to express his feelings? It's not as if he had lied. Love may be confusing and all, but he knew what he was feeling for Rachel Berry. So what was he here for?

He quickly dialed the number of the very same person who sent him here. No one picked up the first time, so he tried again, but soon regretted it.

"What the hell do you want now, ?" A raspy voice shrieked on the other end. He winced at the sound of the voice.

"I don't have anything to apologize for." He stated, and then explained his reasoning behind the statement. There was a long pause, and he wondered if she was still there. "Well? What do you suppose I should do about now?"

"Can't you goddamn men figure out anything by yourselves?" She spat, anger evident in her tone, although he knew it wasn't directed towards him.

"Look, I'm sorry about Puck but there's no need to take it out on me, okay?"

"You're right. I'm sorry. I don't even know why I'm still even thinking about that stupid bastard. It's over." She apologized, her voice broke at the end, and were followed by a few sniffles. From her raspy sounding voice, he could guess that she'd been crying all night. "I'm fine. I'm fine." The sniffles soon ended.

"What were we talking about again?" She questioned, followed by a "Oh right, Rachel...advice...got it. Get the hell out of there, if you don't have a reason to be there." She ordered, suddenly seeming to forget she'd just been silently sobbing a few minutes ago, and returning to her bossy self.

"I'm awfully sorry, but it seems I'm going to have to ignore your advice this time." He shrugged. Normally he'd just do whatever Quinn told him would wrok, because after all, Quinn was a girl, so she'd know best. On top of all that, she was also Rachel's best friend. Rachel told her everything, therefore Quinn knew of ways to please her, and there was nothing he wanted more, than to please her.

"Why?" She screeched. She hated being wrong, and even more, hated people defying her. Although her advice was supposed to be more of a suggestion, rather than an order, it still made her feel as though she was wrong, and that made her feel dumb. She already felt horrible enough about herself, since Puck left her...or did she leave Puck. Either way, In her eyes, she assumed Puck left her because he thought Santana was better than her. That was enough to knock her confidence.

"Because I want to see her." He admitted with a sad smile, before hanging up, knowing that he'd later have to face the wrath of one angry Quinn Fabray for hanging up on her. He honestly could care less.


	6. I Don't Know Why

Quinn choked out another sob, clutching at her throat, hoping and wishing that the pain would just stop. As much as her throat suffered from lack of oxygen, her heart hurt more, and more than that...her pride. It had been two days, and she started to question her emotions. Even though she repeadily told herself that it wasn't that big of a deal, her continuous sobbing convinced her that she was lying to herself. Why did she care so much? Why did it feel like someone had chokehold on her heart, causing it to slowly suffocate. She hated this. She felt so weak, and she hated it. She wanted to feel strong and independent, like she could do anything even without Puck. And for the most part, she believed that she could do anything without him. Still, she didn't mind his company...she actually kind of liked it. There were many times when she found him amusing and funny.

She had always thought that she was too good for him, and that made her extremely happy. She was delighted that he could never leave her, because she was too good for him. He was LUCKY to have her. Why that made her happy? That was something she'd never admit to anyone...ever. She wanted him by her side. She wanted him to stay with her and never leave. She wasn't sure why she felt this way about Puck. Maybe it was because he was always with her through the pregnancy, and she just got used to him being there for her. He had grown on her and managed to get under her skin. She hated to admit it, but she actually liked him. However many times she told herself to stop thinking about him didn't matter, because each time her sobs would grow louder, until her mother was begging her to stop crying. Each time her heart would ignore her mother's requests.

"Quinn, baby, are you ill?" Her mother reluctantly asked, hoping she would be able to finally figure out what was wrong. Was she hurting somewhere? Did she need to go to the hospital? A few more sobs excaped the small girl's lips.

"No." She managed, several tears slithering down her cheeks, threatening to fall to the ground.

"Where does it hurt?" She gasped dramatically, holding her daughter straight, realizing that she was trembling like crazy. Something must be seriously wrong for her to be this unstable, the woman realized.

"My chest." She choked, grasping at the area where her heart was supposed to be. "Oh someone, please rip it out."

"Honey, are you lovesick?" breathed, after taking note of her daughter's motions. At first she was afraid for Quinn. After all, chest pains were a very bad sign, but after reading into Quinn's words, she realized that what was really hurting, was the young girl's heart. She was in love and it was hurting her.

"No!" She screamed, "Never! Not with that asshole!" She gasped at her daughter's obscene language, but hesitantly left the room, knowing that what Quinn wanted most, was to be alone. She still couldn't help but worry. Quinn had been crying her heart out for two days straight, with the exception of the times she left the house. Whenever she was in an area where other people could see her, she would put on a hard cold stern face.

Once had escaped from Quinn's room, she nervously pressed her ear to the closed and locked door. Who could blame her? She was a mother and was worried about her daughter. She expected to hear some information leading to the boy who had made Quinn cry like this, but after a few more muffled sobs, she could only hear a soft melody through the crack of the door.

I don't know why I love you  
I don't know why I love you  
I don't know why I love you  
But I love you

Always treat me like a fool  
Kick me when I'm down that's your rule  
I don't know why I love you  
But I love you  
Oh you never stop your  
Cheatin ways with another girl  
You laugh in my face  
Lord how long must I be disgraced  
Cause I love you  
Oh baby, baby, baby  
I don't know why I love you  
I don't know  
You and me baby, oh  
I don't know why I love you baby  
But I love you baby  
Oh darlin, darlin, darlin

You throw my heart down in the dirt  
You made me crawl on  
This cold black earth, baby  
No I never, I never knew  
How much love could hurt  
Until I loved you baby  
Till I loved you baby, baby  
Oh baby, I can't stop  
I can't stop crying can't you see  
Here I'm pleadin on my knees  
I'm on my knees  
Won't you help me, help me please  
Cause I love you, I love you baby  
Sure enough, baby, yeah  
I don't know, you don't know  
We don't know none of us  
Can't do nothing about it  
I don't know, I don't know  
Oh baby, I don't know, I don't know  
Nobody can do nothing about it

The Guilty Ones

She was not ready. The star of 's glee club, took a deep breath, getting ready to face another day. She was not ready for this at all. There was nothing Rachel could wish for more, than to be able to stay home another day. Another day? More like another year. She had missed a whole week of school, and there wasn't any way to be able to miss today too...that would only make her want to miss tomorrow. Although she was the slightest bit afraid, she knew the only way to solve this was to conquer it head on. Rachel gave one more look to herself in the mirror, put on a confident smile, held her head up high, and stormed out of her bedroom grabbing a couple essential things for school before leaving.

Luckily, as soon as she had arrived she had quickly found Finn and clung to him like a life support, never leaving his side. Rachel mentally cursed herself for being such a coward. She was Rachel Berry. She was a strong soon to be star. Why was she acting like such a coward? Like she needed to hide behind Finn because she couldn't face Jesse? She breathed a sigh and waved Finn off hoping that when 2nd period came she would be ready to confront him, but when it came she still wasn't.

It took a couple of hours of thinking and ignoring the teacher's comments about her dozing off, to finally prepare herself. By then, it was already the end of the day so she trotted down the hall with her head held high before stopping at the former Vocal Adrenaline star's locker. At first he seemed a little shocked and flustered at her presence but soon recovered from it, giving her a soft smile.

"Hey" was all he could muster up, because his brain had already froze and those were the only words that seemed to come to the surface of his thoughts. Her teeth dug into her lip and she gave a momentary pause before looking back up to him and repeating the same thing in response. The awkward silence was becoming unbearable. Rachel had to constantly remind herself what she meant to say.

"Jesse." He was trying to read her expression, trying to figure out whether she was about to say something good or bad. He failed to read anything and decided to prepare himself for the worst. "I know that this is a horrible thing to do to you after everything. Well, you have done worse to me...but what I mean to say is...I just can't reciprocate your feelings. You know I love Finn, don't you? And well..."

"You don't want me to interfere with you and Finn any further?" He assumed as a hurt expression appeared on his face. She shook her head rapidly.

"No, no, no. Of course not. Well, I mean yes, but..." By now she just looked confused but she quickly shook away all thoughts and continued. "You see, what I'm trying to say is that we need to call a truce of some sort."

"A truce?" He clarified.

"Yes." She breathed, nodding towards him, "A truce. So how about we just start all over? I'm sick of all this drama, and that means a lot coming from me." She giggled slightly at her comment before sticking her hadn out towards the boy.

"Friends?" He smiled genuinely before giving her petite hand one shake.

"Friends." Jesse repeated with a wide grin.

"You do realize how cliche this all seems." He added giving a short laugh.

"Of course I do." She snapped back, "but sometimes it's best to keep things cliche. It drives the situation away from all the mess."

"I prefer things to be original, but I guess this will do."

"I'm glad you think that, because this is how I expect things to be kept." She responded before murmuring under her breath, "Well, at least until I figure everything out."

The Guilty Ones

"Santana!" The certain Sue Sylvester barked. Immediately the girl stood in front of her, waiting for something to be said. The cheerleading coach just roughly dragged the girl to her office, sat her in the chair across from hers, and stared her down.

"Coach Sylvester? Are you angry with me?" She asked, giving the woman a look of confusion. Sue retained the indifferent look she always wore and shrugged.

"Quite the opposite Santana. I heard you used dirty tricks to steal Q's little boy toy." Santana shrugged and crossed her arms while a confident smirk spread across her face.

"I like the way you think. You know, it is truly reassuring to know that at least one cheerleader knows the Sue Sylvester way of getting what they want. Therefore, I'm am now assigning you the position of head cheerleader. Now look foward to your days of constant backflips and making more lives miserable."

The queen now had everything she could ever want.

"Fabray. You hear? I'm the head cheerleader now." She sneered as a greeting to the blond girl. Quinn growled, hoping that Santana wouldn't see through the make-up that hopefully fully covered her puffy eyes. Apparently, there was no such luck in the world.

"I'm not in the mood to deal with your crap today." She muttered under her breath.

"Have you been crying?" She laughed loudly. "Hey! Guess what everyone? Miss former president of the celibacy club is crying cause I stole her little boyfriend." The obnoxious laughter was becoming too much for Quinn, and it only got worse as everyone joined in as a response to Santana's laughter. She couldn't take this much longer, but she refused to run away crying. She was done with that. It was fight or flight, and she was tired of the flight. It was time to fight.

Quinn dove for Santana's hair and gave it a hard tug before pushing the girl roughly into the lockers. Santana gave her a hard calculating glare and clawed at the girl, just barely scraping her arms. She was going to go for the neck next if this girl didn't watch it.

"You bitch!" She screeched at Quinn, landing a hard slap on the girl's face. In response, Quinn lashed out and punched Santana in the shoulder, which resulted in more pulling of the hair, scratching, slapping, kicking, and punching. Both the girls had already drowned out the loud "Fight! Fight! Fight!" chants.

It was a while before a teacher finally found a way in the mess to break it up. By then, both girls were covered in bruises and scratches from head to toe and were sent to the nurse to clean up. Puck, who was watching the fight from a distance, had a horrified look on his face.

"Oh shit."

The Guilty Ones

For once in the past week, Finn could actually say that he was feeling good. Well, kinda good and kinda not...but mostly good. He wasn't sure how much sense that just made, but it was hard to describe exactly how

he felt. He never meant to eavesdrop, it just sort of happened. Not that his eavesdropping resulted in a bad thing. Actually, it was pretty good. After finally hearing Rachel tell Jesse that she loved HIM and only wanted to remain FRIENDS with Jesse, Finn could proudly claim that he was happy.

He strolled into the glee club room with a wide grin on his face. It was actually so wide that it started creeping out the others. Heck, he even decided to be friendly to Jesse and greet him as soon as he entered the room...although Jesse did seem quite startled at his greeting and was cautious of the creepy big smile.

"Um...is that considered normal with him?" Jesse whispered towards Artie who shook his head immediately.

"So how are you Jesse? Did you have a good day? From today on we're gonna be such great friends!" It was as if he was talking a thousand words a minute. Scratch that, a million. It took a while for Jesse to think through what he had just asked.

"Uh...yeah...I'm fine...thanks." He replied awkwardly, before proceding to sit as far away from Finn as he could. Unfortunately, Finn followed, slinging his arm across the other boy's shoulder.

"You know? You should join the football team. We could make such a great team, man."

"No thanks." The grin still refused to fade off the quarterback's face and he continued to press on.

"You sure? Why don't we hang out this weekend. We could play basketball or videogames or something like that."

"Actually, I already promised to-" Jesse started, but was interrupted by the nudging of Rachel's arm. She mouthed a few words to him, making him groan.

"Do I have to?" He whined, to her. She gave him a short glare before placing a hand on Finn's shoulder and smiling.

"He'd love to hang out with you this weekend."


	7. Preview & Author's Note

**PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING: I know most readers would take one look at this and say "Author's note? No need to read. I'll skip this and just get to the stroy." Well, please don't. I would appreciate if you would read through this author's note because I'm not going to spend a whole page explaining why I didn't update. I'm going to talk mostly about the story, and even get the readers involved as to what will happen in future chapters...**

**This is an author's note. Not another boring author's note because as I have promised, there will be some parts of the story at the end. I can't write another chapter because I'm kind of stuck, but I can write a preview for things to come. ;)**

**Now about me being stuck, my problem is, recently I've really been liking the last 3 episodes of Glee. How is that a problem? I want to incorporate some of the new characters and plot line into _The Guilty Ones_. I believe that using both the old plot line and new one will create conflict, and make the story more interesting if I make it go the way I want. Now, the problem with that is that I'm not sure how to go about this. There are 3 ways I can go about continuing my story _The Guilty Ones_.**

**1.)Don't change it. Continue with the story as it is, without adding any of Season 2 plot line or characters.**

**2.)Write them in as you go along. (In this case the story can continue at the beginning of the new school year)**

**3.)Start off with something along the lines of a recap explaining what had happened..."It was rather strange that time had passed so quickly. Rachel could've sworn that it was just June, not November. So much had happened in little time, and it was even hard to believe that some of those things had occurred. Sue had become principle and then just wasn't anymore, Quinn was now head cheerleader and had a new boyfriend that she was actually seriosu about, Brittany was dating Artie who was dumped by Tina for Mike Chang..."**

**Now, here is where you (The readers) come in! I want you to help me decide. Leave a comment saying which number you prefer in your review. In the cases of both 2 and 3, Jesse will still be in high school with the rest because Vocal Adrenaline flunked him in his classes while he went to Carmel High, in hopes that he could stay in Vocal Adrenaline.**

**Now, it's time for the preview. I know it's short, but this is all I can write in so far, until I know whether I'm including the Season 2 plot line or not ;)**

Rachel stared at Jesse in disbelief. She knew she wasn't being her usual self because the stare she was giving him was ice cold and indifferent, although she was far from indifferent about the situation on the inside. Her anger was like boiling lava, and she wasn't all that sure why she was angry.

"I-I just can't understand how you can go from one person to another in a couple of days! You said you loved me!" She shrieked.

"It wasn't a couple of days, it's been 5 months, Rachel." He protested, looking just as flustered as she was. Why must she make a big deal out of everything? Why must she always be so dramatic? She gets angry if he tries to make a move on her, but gets angry if he tries to move on. Why must she always be on the borderline?

"You said you loved me!"

"Loved! That's past tense."

"So...you don't..." Rachel struggled to choke out her words, and could feel the silent tears sting in her eyes. She wasn't even too sure why she was crying because she had always told herself that Finn was the one she loved.

"I'm sorry."

_The Guilty Ones_


End file.
